Paris to visit Rwanda as part of post-jail effort

updated 2:19 p.m. ET Sept. 26, 2007

NEW YORK - Paris Hilton plans to visit Rwanda as part of her post-jail commitment to use her celebrity status to bring attention to social causes.

“I’ll be going in November, after I get back from filming my movie,” she tells E! Online in a story posted Tuesday on the Web site.

“There’s so much need in that area, and I feel like if I go, it will bring more attention to what people can do to help,” Hilton says.

The 26-year-old hotel heiress-actress vowed to use her fame to bring attention to social causes after serving a 23-day jail sentence earlier this year for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.

Slide show Paris in the spotlight See images of media darling Paris Hilton. more photos

“I want to visit more countries where poverty and children’s issues are a big concern,” she says. “I know there’s a lot of good I can do just by getting involved and bringing attention to these issues.”

Hilton co-stars with Paul Sorvino and Alexa Vega in “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” a movie about organ harvesting. The horror rock opera, based on a stage musical, is set in a plague-ravaged future where people can purchase new organs on the installment plan from a corporation called Geneco. The catch is that if the payments stop, the organs are repossessed.

Meanwhile, Hilton says she’s planning to add eco-friendly touches to her new home in Beverly Hills, Calif.

“I just bought the house and haven’t been able to work on it yet,” she says. “But I intend to.”

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